


cinder and smoke

by tinuvhiel



Category: Captive Prince - C. S. Pacat
Genre: Angst, Canon Compliant, Canon-Typical Violence, Character Study, Drama, F/M, M/M, Multi, Post-Canon
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-08-09
Updated: 2018-08-09
Packaged: 2019-06-24 09:18:35
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,222
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/15627576
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/tinuvhiel/pseuds/tinuvhiel
Summary: Somehow, it is hard to worry in Damianos’ strong arms.





	cinder and smoke

The first time she meets the prince of Akielos, Jokaste thinks him dull, and boring. She has lived in Ios for all her life and, being the only daughter of an aristocrat family, she has visited the Royal palace several times, and several times she has been the object of admiration and affections from minor and not so minor nobles. It is not a surprise when, a few days short of her twenty-first birthday, Prince Damianos approaches her at a feast. She knows she looks beautiful in her new gown, and her parents have been spreading news of her coming-of-age all around the palace. Still, Damianos seems to forget that women plan carefully for these things.

“Lady Jokaste”, he says, “We have not been properly introduced yet, although I have seen you on several occasions. Allow me to congratulate you on your coming-of-age soon”. He stares at her with appreciation before saying: “I have not gotten my invite yet. I surely hope it is coming”.

He then winks. Jokaste almost rolls her eyes at that. Really, the only thing missing is Damianos puffing his chest or engaging in some sort of physical prowess. Still, she smiles sweetly when saying:

“Thank you, my Prince. Invites have not been sent yet, but you are indeed the first on the list”. 

Damianos smiles widely at that. Jokaste prays he is not going to wink again. He does, however, puff his chest slightly (not that he needs to do that, Jokaste notes against her will), before saying: 

“I will see you soon, then. I will make sure to get you a proper gift”.

He takes her hand to kiss it before leaving. Jokaste is one breath away from laughing. For all his being the Prince, Damianos sure is no different from any other men she met.

-

At her birthday celebrations, she is the most beautiful woman there. All eyes are on her, and she knows it. But there is one pair of eyes she is looking for: she catches Damianos’ gaze before heading towards the garden, a purposeful sway to her hips. She knows he will follow.

It does not take long for him to catch up with her. She hears him approaching, and says: “I never appreciate gardens as much as I do during these kinds of celebrations. Truly a magnificent way to escape some people and their ways”.

Damianos laughs at this. “I hope I am not one of them”, he says, “Do you leave for the gardens often?”

“Yes”, she replies, stopping her walk and turning to face Damianos, “I do like the public ones in Ios especially. People seems to forget they are there, and no one ever comes visit. Private gardens, instead, can become too crowded. Too many people escaping”. 

Damianos smiles again. He does that an awful lot. He has dimples, too. Jokaste is not sure how she feels about that.

“I wanted to give you my gift, in private”. 

He takes out a small bag from his belt. They are now standing very close. In the bag, Jokaste finds a small pin in the shape of a lion, standing proud in a bush of intricate flowers decorated in stones. Jokaste knows what this means: the lion being the symbol of royalty, this can only be a courting gift.

“It is beautiful”, she says, “Thank you. I love the flowers”.

They are now standing even closer. 

“There is something else I wanted to give you”, says Damianos. He is stroking her cheek now. Jokaste can almost see his lips starting to purse. She takes a step back.

“This is looking like I will be the one giving gifts, not receiving. I do require some flowers first. The real thing. I am traditional. Although the ones on the pin are extremely beautiful”.

Damianos looks taken aback. At first, Jokaste worries this will not go her way. Then, his dimples reappear, and there is a twinkle in his eyes. 

“It seems like my night is ending here. I hope I will see you soon, Lady Jokaste. Enjoy your festivities”.

She bows slightly. He kisses her hand again. As he retreats, she hears him say: “Next time, I will bring flowers”. 

\- 

He brings flowers. Jokaste is sitting in the Ios gardens, reading, when she hears footsteps approaching. She does not close her book. The footsteps stop.

“Here we meet again”, says Prince Damianos. 

Without lifting her eyes, Jokaste says: “I was waiting for you”. 

Damianos huffs. Jokaste gazes at him under her eyelashes. He is holding a bouquet of roses. Ordinary, thinks Jokaste, but the angle of her mouth curls anyway. Despite Damianos’ imposing stature, the bouquet does not look out of place in his hand. 

He says: “Did you know I was going to come here?” 

She lifts herself up from the stone bench she had been sitting on. She says: ”No. But I know you were going to look for me”. She approaches Damianos, slowly. He is smiling. She comes near to him, but he does not lift his hand to hold her the flowers. Good, thinks Jokaste, this is becoming more interesting.

“Roses are quite a common flower. You lack of imagination”. 

Damianos laughs, eyes bright, and holds her the flowers. She is smiling too, now.  
Damianos says: “I will do better next time”. 

Jokaste takes the flowers. If she puts one in between a book to make it dry and keep it, no one needs to know.

-

Damianos’ gifts keep coming. Jokaste is not sure she can hold her game much longer.

-

When he finally asks her to be his mistress, they immediately fall in bed together. Jokaste has never felt this revered in her life of luxury. She is sure of her decision, now, and yet she feels almost scared when Damianos kisses her goodnight and she feels her heart flutter when he holds her tight. You need to be focused, Jokaste thinks, or the court is going to eat you alive. Somehow, however, it is hard to worry in Damianos’ strong arms.

-

She quickly finds out that being Damianos’ mistress does not mean to others what it means to the both of them. She knows people think Damianos is taking other lovers. Lately, he has not been using slaves, even, and if he does, it is when they are together. Jokaste knows that, as the Crown Prince’s mistress, she is the object of protection but also much attention. Damen’s protective gaze is sometimes not enough to stop nobles from flocking to her like doves rising from a lake. She refuses each of them, of course. Their attention is not surprising.

What is surprising, however, is Damianos’ brother. Kastor is open with his appreciative glances. It makes Jokaste feel a shiver down her back. She knows it is not unlikely for brothers to pass lovers between each other. She knows of Nikandros’ and Damen’s younger escapades, and even if he is not Damen’s brother, he might as well be. Yet, she knows Kastor and Damen are not on the best terms. Damen only speaks highly of his brother, but she can feel the tension, see the glances. She watches carefully, and keeps her distance.

It proves unfruitful when Kastor approaches her at the Harvest Season’s dance. 

“Will you join me”, he says. It does not sound like a question. His breath reeks of alcohol. She takes his hand. His hold is pressuring on her waist as they dance.

“So”, he says, “What have you got out of this yet?” 

“This whole day has been a blessing”, she says, “I have gotten a lot out of it. We have been lucky with the weather”.

Kastor snorts. “You know that is not what I meant. I know you are more intelligent than you give off”. 

They stop dancing. “Care for a walk on the shore”, he asks, and again it does not sound like a question. 

She takes his hand. They start walking. Kastor is stumbling slightly, and he is kicking rocks as he goes.

“Me and Damen used to sneak out for a midnight swim when we are kids, at these festivities. The water is warm at this time. Or seems to be, at least”.

Jokaste smiles. She knows the story. “And you would always get a cold the day after?”

Kastor laughs. The tension seems to lift. So Jokaste is caught off-guard when he says: “You know you are never going to be able to marry him, right? He needs a political marriage. You are a smart woman. You do not want your children to end up...”

He stops. His eyes are half-closed. He grabs her hand, pulls her close. He is about to kiss her, Jokaste knows. She turns her head the other way and says:

“My children will have a great life. As you do”.

She disengages from his embrace. Kastor’s bitter laugh at her words echoes in her ears as she walks back towards the feast.

“Bonding time with my brother?”, Damen asks smiling when she comes back. “I am glad the two of you are getting closer”.

Jokaste closes her eyes for a moment. How could she say anything to such a trusting man?

“Yes”, she answers, “I had to hear again the story of the two of you swimming at night”. He laughs, and she pulls him in for a kiss. She can feel his dimple as she strokes his cheek. 

-

For the first time, Jokaste does not know what to do. When Theomedes does not get better, Jokaste suspects. She suspects, but does not say anything to Damen. She watches Kastor closely; sees him waring a look of despair and guilt. She goes to his chamber one day, knowing that Kastor has Damen’s favourite arrow there and after getting Damen to send her to fetch it. Kastor is more devious than Damen, and does not keep his secrets on his desk; but Jokaste can play at this game better than the two of them. She finds a letter hidden under a paint, and sees Vere’s symbol on it. She does not have time to read it, but she knows what it means.

She thinks about it for many days. Damen is worried. How can she say something like this? Will he believer her? She watches the brothers, heads close, sitting next to their father’s bed. He will never believe her. She stays quiet.

(Afterwards, she will regret not taking the letter with her. When she manages to go to Kastor’s rooms again, the letter is not there anymore, and no sign of his treachery can be found.)

-

She knows that, if she guessed correctly about Kastor’s plans, she will die. She is the Crown Prince’s mistress, and probably knows too many secrets. So, the next time she sees Kastor exiting Theomedes’ chambers, Jokaste is ready. She coaches him into taking a walk in the public gardens; to clear his mind, she says. They sit on a bench; Jokaste is reminded of the same bench, and she remembers Damen, sweet Damen, holding her roses. She wipes the thought away, and when Kastor tries to kiss her again, Jokaste does not stop him.

-

When she vomits after her bath that night, she attributes it to anxiety. When she vomits again the day after, and the one after again; she knows it is not. She has no choice, now: she has to protect the child. She has no proof of what Kastor is doing, yet she knows, and she also knows Damen is blind to treachery, and will not believe her. 

Sleeping with Kastor is painful, yet she has to do this. She hesitates once, in his bed, then thinks about the life growing inside her, and closes her eyes in the dark. Perhaps if she tries hard enough she will see Damen’s familiar figure above her. 

-

Suggesting the idea to the Kastor is the hardest thing she has ever done. At first he says no, because it would be too horrible. But she knows this is the only way for Damen to survive what Kastor intends to do. At last, she convinces him. 

When she goes back to Damen’s chambers that night, he makes love to her slowly and she cries. When Damen asks what is wrong, she attributes the strong emotions to the position of the moon in the sky and to the fact that she will be bleeding soon. 

She has not bled in three months. She cries again after he falls asleep.

-

Meeting Damen again is as painful as she thought it would be. She knew what was about to come; had had days to prepare herself. She did not ever doubt about Damen surviving in Vere, or coming back to claim his throne. But he is different. Jokaste can clearly see - on his face, his voice, his gestures - how much he has been affected by her and Kastor's treachery, and by slavery. She had been expecting that also. What she had not been expecting, however, was the Prince of Vere.

When the Prince comes to her in the dungeons, she is stricken by how much they look alike. If Prince Laurent is too, he does not show. In fact, he does not show anything at all. Interesting, thinks Jokaste, and rises her defences.

They are both prepared to verbally destroy the other. Jokaste, though, has the upper hand: being a woman, and Damen's past lover, she can say whatever she wants to his new bed-boy. She has to admit, he is beautiful. And clever. It is a pity, thinks Jokaste, that they have to conclude this exchange so soon. But her breasts feel heavy, her whole body still hurts from the labour, and she can still hear the child's faint cry in her hears. When she tells Laurent, she knows she has won. She wonders if Damianos will come to her, asking for the child. She reprimands herself at the thought but, after all, his affections are heady. It is difficult to leave old habits, she thinks, and then allows herself to imagine what her next exchange with Damen will be like. Yet she knows it will never happen. She has seen how he looks at the Ice Prince. He has never looked at her that way.

-

"I don't think you chose", says Laurent.

She stares at him, and ignores his statement. Instead, she asks: "Do you carry pen and paper?"

Laurent pulls them out from his jacket. She takes them, and starts writing. She does not care if Laurent sees: she knows he will not believe her, and at the same time she knows Damen will. When she is finished, Laurent extends his hand to help her out of the wagon. Again, she takes it, but refuses it when she mounts on the horse.

"You know who you will face at the Kingsmeet", she says.

Laurent lifts an eyebrow: "Of course. If I didn’t, you would not be about to escape into the night". 

"No", she concedes, "I wouldn't". 

He is waiting still for her to leave. His shoulders look tense, and he has dark shadows under his eyes. Laurent, thinks Jokaste, has been tangling nets for a longer time than she has. She wonders how it is possible, to be in the middle of a web for such a long time and not to remain caught. 

"You are wrong", she says, finally, "I did make a choice. It was between life, and death".

Laurent looks up at her. He suddenly looks very old and impossibly young at the same time; but most of all he looks tired, and pale. 

"That is the difference between us. You are choosing death, for him. That is what I could not give him”. She puts her horse on a gallop. She does not know if she imagined a strangled sob behind her as she was leaving.

She stops her horse when she is far away enough, but still with the camp in sight. When she turns around, she can still make out Laurent’s figure, and his slouched shoulders. She sees him slowly sinking to the ground, his face in his hands, before she looks up at the night sky and wipes away her tears. 

⁃ 

When her servant comes to announce that there is a visitor, she knows perfectly well who she is going to see. She has been very careful, after all, to whom crosses the border between Patras and Akeilos, and two kings with their retinue are hard not to notice. So when her servant comes to tell her that there is a woman at the door, who claims to be an old friend, she orders to let her in. She waits, reclined a on a couch, her child in her arms. When the visitor strolls in, she is hardly surprised at meeting two blue piercing eyes. 

"King Laurent", she greets, "I was pleased to hear of your coronation". 

Laurent is dressed in a long red mantle, large enough to hide the fact that there are no curves. His mouth curls in a smile. He looks very different from the last time she saw him, now standing tall and proud, even in disguise. He looks rested, and that too is different. 

"I was pleased too, when it happened. It was one of the few times when everything did not go as I had planned", he admits. Jokaste thinks she is probably one of the only two people who knows he had planned to die. The thought makes her feel oddly close to him.

She clears her mind before saying, firmly: "I think this meeting will also not go as you had planned". She pauses, then: "Does Damen know you are here?"

Laurent sits down gracefully on the couch in front of hers. He says: "Oh, no. I know perfectly well how this is going to go. Nevertheless, I wanted to try. And, I have to say, I was quite curious to see how you had adjusted yourself". 

He looks at the child. "The child was never his", he says, quoting her letter, "because in your mind, he has always been just yours". 

Jokaste breathes out. She forces herself to stay completely still, and to not show anything. She says: "It does not matter anymore". 

Laurent looks her in the eyes, and nods slightly: "No. It doesn't.” 

Jokaste says: "You want the child". She unconsciously holds him closer, then notices her mistake, and forces her finger to widen the hold. 

"Damen wants to meet him", says Laurent, "and for him to be his heir". He stands up: "I know you won't give up the child. He does not know I am here, nor does he know where you are located. We will leave you alone, as you wish". 

Jokaste releases the breath she did not know she was holding. She does not know why Laurent is doing all of this. She remembers his words: would you have opened a door for me? I don’t know. 

Laurent is almost at the door when she asks: "Don't you want to know his name?"

He stills on the door. His voice is soft when he says: "I know his name".

Jokaste waits until she hears the door closing before kissing Damen on the top of his head. They are safe, she thinks, we are safe.

**Author's Note:**

> This is the result of being in a place with no wi-fi or phone signal and finding a short draft of this mess on your laptop. I have tried to make this as canon-compliant as possible, however I do know that Jokaste seems much meaner in canon: I'm honestly just bad at writing mean dialogue. I do believe that she is not an evil character, but maybe I have portrayed her in a better light than she should have, I don't know. I have decided to let her write the note in front of Laurent because to me that is a big plot-hole in Captive Prince: why would Laurent not read the note? Or not notice it when he is the one freeing Jokaste? So I have decided that he does not believe her. Similarly, I know I have not done a great job at explaining why she decided to side with Kastor: I do not know how to explain it myself. This work is unedited so please let me know if you find any mistake! I hope it is enjoyable in spite of everything. It is always a pleasure to go back to the Captive Prince saga.


End file.
